


Christmas Lights

by allyasavedtheday



Series: New Beginnings [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, F/M, M/M, New Girl au, and sometimes Erica is the greatest, sometimes fluff happens, yes I'm writing a christmas fic in april leave me alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-20
Updated: 2013-04-20
Packaged: 2017-12-09 01:19:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/768303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allyasavedtheday/pseuds/allyasavedtheday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles likes Erica. He's supposed to like Erica. Have you <em>seen</em> Erica? But it's just...not working. So he has to break up with her. But Stiles sucks at this stuff and Derek has a habit of making situations so much worse. And really, all Stiles wants to do is see the goddamn Christmas lights</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Lights

Stiles remembers the first time he met Erica. He was home alone and she’d shown up at the door, sobbing with mascara smudged under her eyes and looking for Derek.

After he’d very calmly explained Derek wasn’t there she'd stormed into the loft anyway, announcing that she’d wait.

They sat together awkwardly for a while until Stiles couldn’t deal with her trying to stifle her cries anymore and asked what was wrong. She hiccupped about some boy who broke her heart and how she wanted Derek to kill him.

Stiles remembers letting out a surprised laugh which made her smile, if only for a second. But then they fell silent again and Stiles was racking his brain to remember a time when he’d had to deal with sobbing girls - whenever Lydia or Allison were sad they’d ignore the boys and console each other so that was no help. And there was the incident with Kelsey but uh…let’s not go there. 

Erica didn’t seem to mind how bad he was at this though because after a while she asked if he’d hold her hand and he did.

Her hands were small and soft and every time she sniffled like she was going to get hysterical again he’d squeeze her hand a little tighter.

*

After that they start to hang out a lot. She likes the same movies as him and is almost as sarcastic as he is.  _Almost_.

He’s not really sure when or how it happens but one day hanging out turns into dating. 

He's a little worried about Derek’s reaction because he’s since learned just how protective Derek was over Erica - well, he should’ve seen that coming considering when a douchebag broke her heart she turned up at Derek’s house expecting him to kill the guy.

But when Derek walks in on them kissing one day he just looks Erica squarely in the eyes and says, “Do what you want but for the love of God, spare me the details. _Please._ ”

Stiles figures that's as close to getting Derek’s blessing as he's ever gonna get.

*

Things with Erica are nice. She's everything he could ever want and _so_  out of his league. But…it isn’t right.

There just isn’t any spark between them. Erica is the type of girl who deserves a place in his heart right next to Lydia Martin as one of the women in his life who both terrifies him and makes him want to worship the ground they walk on. But he isn’t in love. 

He needs to break up with her and he knows that. He isn’t one to lead people on. But the longer he waits the harder it gets. 

He decides to call a loft meeting in the hopes that his friends might have some insight.

“You’re asking me for advice on how to break up with my best friend?” is the first thing Derek asks which, yeah…oops?

Scott just shrugs and says, “You’ll figure it out!” with an encouraging smile.

Allison just pats his cheek and says, “Everything will be okay.”

When did people stop giving useful advice?

Derek's about to make some other comment when his phone rings. Stiles knows by the look on his face who it is straight away. Derek's been getting a lot of these phone calls lately; his family asking when he was coming home for the holidays even though he’s expressly stated each time his flight is Saturday night.

Stiles figures Derek mustn’t follow through with his promises to visit home all that much.

“Mom, I told you my flight’s at 1am on Saturday…I know that’s Christmas Eve but I’ve got a Christmas party I have to go to," he answers mildly, looking pointedly at Allison.

Said Christmas party is being held in Allison’s office and she’d threatened them with penalty of death if any of them tried to bow out.

Derek hangs up the phone with a sigh, looking far too stressed out and not at all in the holiday spirit. 

“I don’t care if we have to go to this party but we’re going to see the lights afterwards,” Stiles says defiantly.

Scott and Allison groan in unison and Derek looked between the three of them. “What lights?”

“There’s this street that goes all out for Christmas and do these huge light displays,” Allison explains. “Stiles loves it.”

Stiles rolls his eyes. “Oh whatever. Scott acts like an even bigger kid than I do when we go to see them and you,” he continues, turning his gaze to Allison. “Basically cry into your purse over how adorable we are.” 

Scott bites his lip like he’s trying not to grin and Stiles can tell Allison's totally attempting not to roll her eyes affectionately.

“Fine. We’ll go see the lights,” Allison sighs resignedly. “ _After the party_.”

*

They're just entering the party - Erica, from where she sits across the room, spots Stiles immediately and waves - when Derek tugs on Stiles’ shoulder, pulling him back.

“Word of advice, if you  _are_  gonna break up with Erica, just do it and get it over with. Don’t lead her on.”

“I know, man!” Stiles says, throwing his hands up in the air. “I know that’s a shitty thing to do but I don’t wanna hurt her.”

“Oh I’m not worried about her. I’m saying tell her the truth or she’ll cut your balls off.” Derek gives him a smug smirk before disappearing into the crowd.

And,  _how the hell is that **advice**?_

When Stiles looks around helplessly for the right reaction he catches Scott trying to cover a laugh with a cough.

He narrows his eyes at his best friend, “Shut up.”

*

He catches up to Erica eventually, determined to tell her the truth, but that…doesn’t really work.

“Hey Erica-“

“Hey yourself. Where’ve you been all night?” Stiles really likes how she always smiles like she's amused at something no one else notices.

“I really need to tell you something…” 

She looks at him, so unassuming and trusting and…he can't do it.

“You need to try that cake shaped like Santa. It’s awesome!” 

She looks at him strangely but seemed to shrug it off. “Sure.” And then she's wandering over to the food table, leaving Stiles to wallow in his own stupidity and cowardice.

*

Stiles likes to hide when things got complicated so that’s his current excuse for hiding amongst the coats in the closet with a beer and a plate of cookies shaped like Christmas trees. Trust Scott to be able to find him anyway.

“Whatcha doing?” Scott asks cheerily.

“Eating cookies and avoiding confrontation,” Stiles shrugs.

Scott stares at him for a minute before flopping down next to him and snatching a cookie off the plate. “Well share the wealth.”

After Scott’s eaten half the cookies on the plate and taken a generous swig of Stiles’ beer, he asks, “So I take it you haven’t talked to Erica?”

“I  _can’t_ ,” Stiles groans.

“Dude just- just tell her what you’d want to hear if you were in her position. Not the whole, “it’s not you, it’s me,” crap. If someone was breaking up with you, what would you want them to say?”

Stiles stares, dumbfounded, at his friend for a minute before punching him in the shoulder affectionately. “You’re a genius, you know that?”

“So I’ve been told.”

*

Derek's on the balcony getting some air when Erica slides the door back and joins him, “Hey.”

Derek turns around giving her a half-smile. “Hey, did Stiles talk to you?”

She doesn’t look heartbroken but she doesn’t look necessarily happy either. “Uh yeah. He did.”

Oh God that's Derek’s cue to say something comforting. “Yeah listen, he really liked you and you know it’s not your fault, right?”

The look Erica gives him could cut glass. “ _What?_ ”

And of course, at that exact moment, Stiles pulls the sliding door back and comes outside. “Erica I need to-," he stops, noticing the tension between them. "What’s going on?”

“Stiles.” Erica’s voice is calm and Derek knows that means shit's about to go down. “Why did Derek just say that “you liked me”? As in,  _past tense_.”

Stiles is gaping at Derek like he doesn’t know whether throwing him over the balcony or shoving him through the sliding door would make him feel better.

“Yeah. I’m just gonna...go.” Derek dodges past Stiles and closes the door behind him before either of them can say anything. He can handle angry Erica and angry Stiles but not _together_.

*

“Well,” Erica puts her hands on her hips, arching her eyebrow. “Do I get an explanation?”

Stiles sighs and sits down on the little bench pressed against the wall. A moment later, she sits next to him.

“I wanted to tell you,” he admits.

“But you got Derek to break up with me instead?” she asks drily.

Stiles would like to think the fact that she's being sarcastic is a good sign.

“I do like you. You have officially made it in to my top five favourite people but-“

“But your heart’s not in this the way it should be?” She says it like she understands so Stiles chances a glance at her and notices her eyes tracking someone through the glass door. When he follows her gaze he realises it's Derek’s other friend, Boyd.

“I take it yours isn’t either?” he guesses.

She looks at him and he smiles knowingly. She rolls her eyes and shoves him - side note: she's really strong and he totally nearly falls off the bench. “Fine so we both wanna be with other people more than we wanna be with each other,” she summarises but she's smiling.

“Do you still promise to talk about stuff with me that no one else understands or cares about?”

Erica nods, “Absolutely.” See, there was a reason she was one of his top-five favourite people.

She pats Stiles’ knee and stands up, gazing over her shoulder to, presumably, where Boyd is.

“Go tell him I broke your heart,” Stiles said gently. “Boys love being the shoulder to cry on-“

“Well it certainly worked with you,” Erica remarks and Stiles scoffs.

“Let him tell you all the amazing things about you. Trust me, he’s probably been dying for a chance to do just that.”

Erica gives him a little smile and nods. She's just about to step through the door when he stops her, remembering something she’d said.

“Erica wait.” She turns around, waiting expectantly.

“What did you mean when you said we  _both_  want to be with other people?”

She gives him that smile. The one that makes her look amused, like she knows something he doesn’t. “Maybe you don’t see it yet…You will though.”

And then she's gone.

And Stiles- Stiles is confused.

*

He finds Derek later, lurking in a corner like the creeper he is. And it seems he's steadfastly been avoiding Stiles.

Stiles huffs out a breath in frustration. “Oh would you just talk to me, you big baby?”

“I thought you’d already broken up with her,” Derek mutters, keeping his eyes trained on the floor.

“Yeah I gathered that. Look, I’m still mad at you because you totally made the situation ten times worse but I also know it was an accident. So I figure I’ll only keep you in the doghouse for like an hour.”

Stiles shrugs when Derek looks up with something akin to hopefulness. “Call it Christmas spirit, I guess.”

Derek gives him a small smile, one that Stiles is starting to notice only comes out around him. And then Derek’s phone is ringing for the billionth time in the past week and the smile falls away.

“Come on,” Stiles says, throwing his arm over Derek’s shoulder. “Let’s get you to the airport.”

*

Allison and Scott are smushed into the tiny backseat of Derek’s Camaro because Stiles calls shotgun as soon as they get outside. It isn’t until they miss the turn off for the airport that Stiles realises something is up though.

“Dude, you just missed the turn off,” he points out.

“We’re not going to the airport,” Derek says shortly.

“Then where-” He's cut off when he catches sight of where they're heading. The Christmas lights. In the rear-view mirror he sees Allison smiling to herself.

Derek parks his car haphazardly in the middle of the street. The place is deserted and all the lights are off.

Derek climbs out of the car and Stiles soon stumbles out after him.

Derek starts running up and down the streets then, yelling for people to turn on their lights. Scott starts to copy him less than ten seconds later.

“What are you doing?” Stiles calls in bewilderment.

Derek slows to stop in front of him. “You wanted to see the lights,” he says simply. “And I wanted to apologise.”

And like a fucking scene from a movie, one by one, the houses start to light up. Scott cheers, picking Allison up and spinning her around like the big cheese ball he is. But Stiles can only stare in amazement - whether at Derek or the lights he isn’t sure.

“You’re gonna miss your flight,” he says dumbly.

“So I’ll get one in the morning,” Derek rolls his eyes like  _Stiles_  is the one being ridiculous. But then his expression softens into a smile. “Merry Christmas, Stiles.”

He hasn’t decided yet whether he regrets his next decision or not but he barrels into Derek and hugs him fiercely.

It takes a second, but Derek’s arms wind round him tentatively. “You’re officially out of the doghouse,” Stiles mumbles against Derek’s shoulder.

 So the first minute of Stiles’ Christmas are spent in the middle of a street bursting with Christmas lights with his best friends and hugging his adorable idiot of a roommate. Not a bad start if Stiles says so himself.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Characters as always, do not belong to me :)
> 
> I always feel like these aren't fluffy enough so I make sure to shove in a cavity-inducing scene at the end XD I hope you liked it!
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at [allyasavedtheday](http://allyasavedtheday.tumblr.com/)


End file.
